John Major

“If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120...”

“The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionmen...”

“The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.”

“I think the biggest mistake I made was this wretched ability to see both sides of an argument.”

“'Government gets things right' does not encourage sales. 'Government makes another blunder' does encourage sales, so there's a commercial imperative that pushes sensationalism.”

“I like the best of the British press. The best of the British press is very good.”

“You've had an extremely weak euro on the foreign exchange markets, you've had a very dubious policy being followed.”

“When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.”

“Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.”

“Whatever efforts for peace President Gorbachev had in mind, they were pretty substantially undercut very swiftly by Saddam Hussein.”

“The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.”

“If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pens...”

“I have a huge admiration for the House of Lords, I have a huge admiration for the people who work in the House of Lords, they're great public servants and they do an absolutely tremendous jo...”

“Of course there are regrets. I shall regret always that I found my own authentic voice in politics. I was too conservative, too conventional. Too safe, too often. Too defensive. Too reactive...”

“Ronnie Barker will forever be remembered as one of the great comic actors.”

“The British don't runaway from terrorism. We have had 30-odd years of terrorism in our own country from the Irish Republican Army. We're used to it.”

“I don't have a shred of regret about entering the exchange-rate mechanism.”

“It is time to return to core values, time to get back to basics, to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for the others, to accepting responsibility for yourself and you...”

“I inherited a sick economy and passed on a sound one. But one abiding regret for me is that, in between, I did not have the resources to put in place the educational and social changes about...”

“Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.”